Gov't Urged To Invoke Authority To Boost OD Antidote Access
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The Baltimore City Health Department is looking to the Trump administration to expand access to the overdose reversal drug naloxone.
It's not the supply but the cost of the drug that jurisdictions like Baltimore are struggling with.
Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen sounded the alarm last year, and on Thursday she joined Catholic charities and other health advocates for a news conference calling on the federal government to make naloxone more affordable.
The Trump administration declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency last October, and advocates argue it should have included a provision for supplying naloxone. Baltimore has been forced to ration its supply.
"The problem is that we don't have enough money to purchase narcan, and as a result, we recently had to ration it," Wen said.
The Baltimore Health Department can afford about 13,000 noloxone kits a year, but according to Dr. Wen, the city needs twice as many to supply everyone who could benefit.
The Health Department supplies naloxone through community training and outreach.
The call is for the Trump administration to exercise its authority to make naloxone more affordable to state and local jurisdictions and ordinary citizens.
Follow @WJZ on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook
